The Conspicuous Consumption Point of China

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WeChat has undifferentiated the phone from the moment you pick it up and turn it on. It's effectively it doesn't matter what kind of phone you're on they're all the same I completely agree with your point to be clear. The iPhone is competing on a fashion basis or a a fad sort of basis which you can make good money but it's much harder and much less sustainable than a built in advantage of Apple joys.

Ben and James discuss how leverage shifts in a value chain, why WeChat is so powerful in China, and why that is a problem for Apple.

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Links

Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Slack and the State of Technology at the End of 2015 — Stratechery
Connie Chan: When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China — a16z
Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Beyond Disruption — Stratechery
James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
Ben Thompson: The State of Consumer Technology at the End of 2014 — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Businesses on the App Store? — Stratechery